Americans Favor Broader Separation of Religion and Politics
A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.
As you can see from the graph, the lines have crossed since 2004, when Karl Rove and the GOP deliberately placed initiatives to ban gay marriage on the general election ballot as a way to energize social conservative voters.
most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. … As a result, conservatives’ views on this issue are much more in line with the views of moderates and liberals than was previously the case. Similarly, the sharp divisions between Republicans and Democrats that previously existed on this issue have disappeared.
Another chart shows this evolution in stark terms:
Among those who think that gay marriage is a very important issue, the percentage of people who favor greater separation between religion and politics has increased 25%! Among those who think abortion is a very important issues, the percentage of people who favor greater separation between religion and politics has increased 16%! These are significant shifts in opinion among social conservatives.
There could be several reasons for this.
- First, on the issue of gay marriage, the war is over (for now). The self-righteous, er, social conservatives have won. The steam has gone out of arguments from James Dobson, Tony Perkins, et al., that the threat of gay marriage was the end of American civilization.
- Second, other issues like the sagging economy, inflated gas prices, and the war in Iraq have supplanted hot-button social issues as concerns for Americans.
- Third — and I think this is most important — people of faith who thought their religious values were best expressed in issues like abortion and gay marriage have watched the cavacade of corruption, venality, heartlessness and incompetence that characterizes the modern Republican Party and realized they’d been had — that party leaders like George Bush, Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay cynically manipulated their heartfelt faith to advance a vicious, amoral agenda, all the while laughing behind their back.
In any case, the study shows that a shifting political landscape for social conservatives and the politicians who would exploit them. To be sure, the culture wars are not over, but this election season may pass without them being a central focus of the campaigns.
Faith and Politics
Last Saturday evening, Rick Warren, the California mega-church pastor and best-selling author, hosted a forum on faith and politics in his church. The forum, televised nationally, included interviews with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. The fact that Warren could compel the appearance of both candidates (who have not shared a stage in several months) was interesting, and the nature of his interviews as well.
This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, we’re talking about the intersection of religious faith and civic engagement in American life. Should an individual’s faith have nothing to do with her politics? Should a church dictate a person’s political values, even how he votes?
Our guide in this inquiry will be Bee Moorhead, the executive director of Texas Impact. Texas Impact is one of those “faith-based organizations,” a grassroots network that includes regional and statewide religious organizations, local congregations and alliances, and individuals. Texas Impact strives to make information about state government and public policy accessible to people of faith and all interested Texans. Bee has been with Texas Impact since 2000, but before that served our state as a policy analyst in the Comptroller’s Office. Her insights will be both entertaining and, well, insightful.
The show airs every Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at http://www.koop.org/. Tune in for this interesting presentation!
TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.
Gas Prices and Energy Policy — This Week on TPT
Last week, U.T. politics guru Jim Henson joined us to review the Texas Lyceum Poll 2008 just released last month. Among other things, the poll asked over 1,000 Texas respondents to identify what they thought were the top issues facing the nation and the state. Here they are:
MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL ISSUES:
Economy 33%
Gas Prices/Energy 20%
Iraq War 14%
Leadership/Gridlock/Corruption 6%
Security 4%
Immigration 4%
Health Care 4%
Morality 3%
MOST IMPORTANT STATE ISSUES
Gas Prices/Energy 21%
Immigration 20%
Economy 17%
Education 12%
Leadership/Gridlock/Corruption 7%
Health Care 4%
Roads/Traffic 4%
Environment 2%
Taxes/Property Taxes 2%
Dr. Henson discussed these important results with us last week. This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, we’re taking issue Numero Uno at the state level — gas prices and energy — and comparing the two presidential candidates, presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, and comparing their positions on short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to America’s over-dependence on foreign sources of energy.
The show airs every Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at www.koop.org. Tune in for this interesting presentation!
For more information, you can check out Senator McCain’s energy platform here and Senator Obama’s energy plan here.
TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.
Today on TPT: What’s On Your Mind?
This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY we’ll be paraphrasing Sigmund Freud’s famous question and asking, “What do Texans want?” Our topics is, “What is on Texans’ minds as we go into the election season?” Our guest will be Jim Henson, Director of the Texas Politics Project at The University of Texas at Austin and co-author of the recent poll released by the Texas Lyceum at the end of June. You can read more about the poll here.
TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.
Harvey Kronberg on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY
Quorum Report owner and editor Harvey Kronberg will preview the fall election season and handicap the most interesting races on today’s episode of TEXAS POLITICS TODAY. The show airs every week from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at www.koop.org.
The Quorum Report is a non-partisan newsletter focusing on Texas politics and government. Founded in 1983, QR is Texas’ oldest political newsletter. Published online most days, the newsletter combines fast breaking news along with institutional memory and a healthy skepticism as befits a publication whose subscribers include most of Texas elected officials, most of the lobby as well as most law firms with a legislative practice.
Harvey Kronberg has been covering Texas politics since 1989. He also serves as political commentator for News 8 Austin — a 24 hour news channel serving central Texas. He has been cited in publications as diverse as The Congressional Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor and more.
Bill Bishop on “The Daily Show” Tonight (Updated)
Bill Bishop, the author of “The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart,” will be Jon Stewart’s guest on the “The Daily Show” tonight. Bill was a guest on Texas Politics Today back in May of this year.
“The Daily Show” airs at 10:00 p.m. CDT on the Comedy Channel.
UPDATE: Watch the “Daily Show” episode here.
Great Minds Think Alike
On the Texas Politics Today episode on Wednesday, July 16, we joined Markos Moulitsas, founder and chief author of Daily Kos, in a wide-ranging discussion of how the blogosphere emerged as an important force in progressive politics and how they are affecting national, state and local politics in this election year. One of the points in our discussion was a contrast between the conservative/Republican domination of talk radio and the progressive/Democratic domination of the “netroots.” As reported by co-host David Kobierowski here, here and here, Markos said, “the right has a top-down approach to governing, where the left has a more democratic/bottom-up approach that allows for blogging to work.”
This morning on “Weekend Edition,” Scott Simon spoke with Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post reporter on technology and politics, about the role of the blogosphere in modern politics. One of the points Vargas made: that Republicans are more top-down and Democrats more, well, democratic. Sounds like Vargas heard our interview with Markos or read our posts about the interview.
Take a listen here.
M-O-N-E-Y, The Mother’s Milk of Politics
Political campaigns are battles of personality and ideas, yes, but they are also big business. In just the primary season alone, all the candidates raised over a billion dollars. Barack Obama led the pack by far, having raised over $339 million and spent over $267 million. Although the levels are smaller when it comes to statewide and local races, there is no doubt that money plays a critical role in the ability of a campaign to function effectively.
This week on Texas Politics Today, we’re taking the advice of Deep Throat and “following the money.” We’ll look at campaign finance reports for the first six months of the year — submitted July 15 — and given an overview of who’s got the scratch and who’s scratching around.
Texas Politics Today airs every week from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP radio, located at 91.7 on the FM dial. KOOP also streams live at www.koop.org
David K’s Thoughts On Yesterday’s Interview
Texas Politics Today’s Deece Eckstein and David Kobierowski interviewed Markos Moulitsas, Founder Daily Kos today.
The interview was broadcast live at 2:30pm, Wed., July 16th, 2008 on 91.7FM KOOP, Austin’s Community Radio Station.
It was an honor to have Markos join us in-studio at KOOP Radio today.
Early in the interview, Markos commented “I started Daily Kos as a place to vent and react to what was happening in the world…because I was not seeing it in the traditional media”.
He went on to say “there was a yearning for a progressive medium that was not Corporate in nature. Daily Kos provides honest progressivism”
For me personally, having dedicated 15 years of my life to Corporate America, hearing Markos’ story was refreshing. As a believer in Democracy from the bottom up, the success of Daily Kos validates our need for more honest voices from everyday people that are not paid lobbyists with a special interest agenda.
It was clear that Markos was not happy with the power of lobbyists in our government…he said at one point that “AT&T Lobbyists often have more influence than we (Daily Kos) do“.
Offline I asked Markos why blogs have been more successful on the left than the right and he commented that “the right has a top-down approach to governing, where the left has a more Democratic/bottom-up approach that allows for blogging to work“.
Yea!! That’s what I’m talking about!! With 92% of US AM Radio programs being Conservative, possibly the right doesn’t need to blog?? Well, I’m just glad the people’s voice is getting heard!
When asked about the mission of Daily Kos going into the Nov. elections and 2010 Markos explained “to find candidates that represent the “NetRoots values“…which Markos added “is a lot easier now than it was in 06′”
Another goal of DailyKos is “to push the Democratic Party to represent the people more, as opposed to representing the Corporate Interest”.
Referring to the potential of a major victory in Nov., Markos said “Republicans have made such a mess out of this country that you could be a Monkey and win some of these elections”
Specifically in TX, Markos commented “there’s a possibility for an upset in TX for Obama and the Democratic Party, IF the voters turn out”.
Markos talked about NetRoots Nation (YearlyKos) being “a truly bottom-up event. We didn’t say lets get a bunch of people together to go see Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. But we got a bunch of people together and then Nancy Pelosi wanted to join us”.
Referring to BOR, off-air Markos commented The “Burnt Orange Report is easily one of the top three ‘State Political blogs’ in the country”. NICE!
Thanks again Markos for joining us today on “TX Politics Today”!!
TEXAS POLITICS TODAY Grabs Media Spotlight
This week’s episode of TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, which aired yesterday with Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas as our guest, was terrific. Markos turned out to be a smart and engaging interview, in one of the few interviews he’ll give while in Austin this week. His presence on the show garnered lots of local media attention.
Austin American-Statesman political reporter Gardner Selby previewed the interview, then live-blogged it. His thoughts can be read here. (The most interesting part of his story may be the comment by “Rick,” who fretted that “this radical left element is responsible for the internet attacks on government/Whitehouse/NASA/CIA/NASA/USAF website—-anything the radical left disagrees with” and expressed his ”HOPE the FBI tapes this outfit—-I am sure they will find more than a few ‘persons of interest’! ” I hope the FBI did tape the show — they can give a copy to us so we can put up a podcast.)
Elise Hu from KVUE News plugged the episode on her Political Junkie blog. She also did a story on tonight’s news that included an interview with Markos. She inserted some B-roll of our show into the segment. If you can’t remember what the “On Air” sign in the studio looks like, or wonder what the back of David Kobierowski’s head looks like, check out her report here.
Speaking of David, he’ll share his thoughts about what Markos had to say in a future post.